Hot Topics:

Politics

Republicans appear ready to give on some of Obama's programs

By Jonathan WeismanThe New York Times

Posted:
01/23/2013 12:01:00 AM MST

Updated:
01/23/2013 01:52:50 AM MST

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama's aggressive inaugural address on Monday presented congressional Republicans with a stark choice over the next two years: Accommodate the president's agenda on immigration, guns, energy and social programs and hope to take the liberal edge off issues dictated by the White House, or dig in as the last bulwark against a re-elected Democratic president and accept the political risks of that hard-line stance.

As Obama's second term begins, Republican leaders appear ready to accede at least in the short term on matters such as increasing the debt limit on Wednesday. Their decision shows that even among some staunch conservatives, Obama's inauguration could be ushering in a more pragmatic tone — if not necessarily a shift in beliefs.

From the stimulus to the health care law to showdowns over taxes and spending, Republicans have often found that their uncompromising stands simply left them on the sidelines, unable to have an effect on legislation and unable to alter it much once it passed.

Even in the budget impasses that forced spending cuts sought by conservatives, the Republicans' ultimate goals — changes to entitlement programs and the tax code — have been out of reach.

Now, some in the party say, it is time to take a different tack.

"We're too outnumbered to govern, to set policy," said Rep. John Fleming, R-La., who has taken confrontational postures in the past. "But we can shape policy as the loyal opposition."

Advertisement

The new approach already has produced results. In proposing to hold off a debt limit showdown for three months in return for the Senate producing a budget, House Republicans essentially maneuvered Senate Democrats into agreeing to draw up a spending plan, something they have avoided for three years.

Republican concessions, however, may only set up larger confrontations in the coming months over spending, taxes and immigration.

For instance, the three-month delay on the government's statutory borrowing limit set for a vote on Wednesday is likely to produce a fight this spring over changes to Medicare, even for those nearing retirement. An acceptance in principle on the need to institute changes in immigration laws could bog down later this year over what to do with nearly 12 million illegal immigrants.

And the House Republican demand that the Senate produce a budget by mid-April could set in motion a Senate effort to overhaul the tax code to raise more revenue, contrary to Republican vows to stand against any more tax increases.

The president's inaugural speech set Republicans on edge. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., the party's former vice-presidential nominee, said Obama had used "straw man arguments" in taking an implicit swipe at Ryan when he said that programs like Medicare and Social Security "do not make us a nation of takers; they free us to take risks that make this country great."

Ryan said that his own past references to "takers" did not refer to programs that people had paid into over their lives, and that the president was distorting the Republican stance.

"When the president does kind of a switcheroo like that, what he's trying to say is that we are maligning these programs that people have earned throughout their working lives," he said on the Laura Ingraham talk-radio show.

Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican minority leader, called the address "basically a liberal agenda directed at an America that we still believe is center-right."

Nonetheless, the accommodations to the president may begin Wednesday when House Republican leaders ask their members to suspend the debt limit for three months as both chambers move forward on broader budget plans. The White House press secretary, Jay Carney, said Tuesday that the president "would not stand in the way of the bill becoming law."

The tests will keep coming. A bipartisan group of senators is expected to release immigration proposals within the next two weeks. Already, there are signs of resistance.

Rep. Raul R. Labrador, R-Idaho, expected to be a point person for Republicans in the coming battle, said he could not support a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants, a top demand of the president's.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., the Senate majority leader, vowed Tuesday to put on the floor any gun control measures passed by the Judiciary Committee, inching closer to another showdown with the House.

To smooth these initial accommodations, House Republican leaders are having to make commitments to the rank and file that may present problems in the future. To win the votes for a 90-day suspension of the debt limit, some of the House's most ardent conservatives said Tuesday, their leaders had to promise them two concessions.

The first was that either $110 billion in automatic, across-the-board spending cuts would go into force as scheduled in March, or equivalent cuts would have to be found. The second was that the House would produce a budget this spring that balances in 10 years — a heavy lift, considering that the past two budgets passed by the House did not get to balance for nearly 30 years.

To do that, House Republicans said, substantial changes to Medicare — which had previously been reserved for those 10 years or more from the eligibility age of 65 — would instead have to hit people seven years from eligibility, producing more savings.

"In 90 days, this is going to be the ultimate test for those we entrust with leadership positions," said Rep. Dave Schweikert, R-Ariz. "And I believe there will be hell to pay if we squander this."

The state of the president's nominees

For President Barack Obama, the first test of his second term will come quickly this week when Chuck Hagel and John Kerry, his nominees for the two biggest national-security posts, take critical steps toward winning Senate confirmation. They are likely to get very different receptions.

JOHN KERRY, Secretary of State

The Massachusetts senator is expected to breeze through his hearing on Thursday before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which he still leads.

CHUCK HAGEL, Defense secretary

The former Republican senator faces an uphill task of winning over hostile Republicans. The Senate Armed Services Committee has set Jan. 31 for Hagel's hearing.

JOHN BRENNAN, Director of the CIA

As Hagel's prospects have improved, some analysts say the nominee to watch is Brennan, right, the White House counterterrorism adviser Obama has chosen for the CIA. Brennan is facing thorny questions from Democrats over the use of drone strikes and the killing of U.S. citizens in counterterrorism operations. His hearing is scheduled for Feb. 7 before the Senate Intelligence Committee.

JACOB LEW, Treasury secretary

The Senate Finance Committee has yet to schedule a hearing for Lew. He is the current White House chief of staff.

Clinton to testify on Libya attack

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will go to Capitol Hill on Wednesday. She will testify before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in the morning on the deadly attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, and before the House Foreign Affairs Committee in the afternoon. The New York Times

Missy Franklin, Jenny Simpson, Adeline Gray and three other Colorado women could be big players at the 2016 Rio OlympicsWhen people ask Missy Franklin for her thoughts about the Summer Olympics that will begin a year from Wednesday in Rio de Janeiro, she hangs a warning label on her answer.